August Photo Challenge: Happy Place

Here we are the end of August and time again for PJ’s monthly photo blogging challenge. This month, we’re going to our Happy Place. If summer is your happy place, you were in luck this month taking photos. Normally, my happy place is a tropical beach, but I didn’t travel to one this month so my happy places were a little closer to home.

And, with temps off and on in the 100sF  and heat indices in the triple digits this summer, I’m thinking my happy place may be a bit cooler. But, here we go…….

Happy Place 1

When middle Missouri is not hanging out on hell’s front porch, this is where I like to spend my mornings and evenings. Our backyard patio is strategically positioned to face east so we don’t get the blistering summer afternoon heat. Morning tea and a good book round out the perfect setting. When the summer sun starts to set, the house blocks the hottest part of the day and into the evening. Cabo is a bonus accessory.

Happy Place 2
When Cabo and I walk in the neighborhood, I look for nature in the untamed areas between the manicured lawns where wild chicory, cattails, Queen Anne’s lace, milkweed, sunflowers, daisies and thistles have reclaimed the ground. We sort of have the best of both worlds in our neighborhood.

Happy Place 3

It’s a lot of work, but the garden we have is another place that makes me happy. There’s something about growing your own food that is very satisfying. For more about our garden this year, you can read it HERE. When mature, a veggie garden is all-consuming but when I’m in the garden, it allows me time to be alone with my thoughts. Sometimes I listen to podcasts while I pick. It’s therapy.

Happy Place 4

Here’s two happy place things combined into one; being in the garden and my doodle dog, Cabo. Aside from the unfortunate corn cob eating event four years ago, Cabo is allowed to wander in the garden while we’re in there as long as he doesn’t steal any red bell peppers off the plants. On this day, I looked up from picking green beans to find him lounging in the bean rows like Ferdinand and his flowers.

Happy Place 5

This is another combination happy place: my grandkids and photography. Granted, as they get older, there are more challenges to that happy place, but I’ll take time with them as often as possible. Every year I coax bribe plead talk them into taking “first day of school” pics the day before they actually start. I’ve developed a passion for taking photos…some would call it an obsession….and they may have a point. But taking photos and working with them takes me to a happy place.

Happy places are necessary to maintain sanity in a world that has become increasingly unhappy and hostile. Maybe if more people spent time in their happy places, they would have less time to direct vitriol and hatred towards others. Please visit PJ’s place around the first of September to see what makes other people around the world happy.